Fugitives
by ImmortalNightmares
Summary: Thanks to Dan, Danny gets on the ghost zone's and human world's most wanted lists. His only hope for survival is...Vlad? VD/FS Post PP


_Disclaimer: Danny Phantom is owned by Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon. This is a fan work made for fun. No copyright infringement or offence is intended._

* * *

 **CHAPTER ONE**

Horror, disbelief and rage raced through every nerve in Danny's body. He stared at the still lifeless forms of his loved ones, strewn on the ground of his parents' lab. At least, it had been his parents' lab, until now. His best friends, Sam and Tucker, his mom and dad, they were all... They were dead.

Danny glared up at the enemy with tears of resentment and a hatred no hero should ever feel, but in that moment he felt all his inhibitions vanish as one terrible desire overtook his whole being. He wanted to kill the figure before him. He wanted to tear Dan Phantom limb from limb!

"Danny Phantom. Danny Fenton," Dan began in a mocking tone. "A half ghost half human boy once shunned and hunted, now the hero who saved us all from the disasteroid. I was expecting a better fight after all this time."

His dark alternate future self grinned at him with burning red eyes. In further mockery he wiped a tear from Danny's hate filled face.

"So, tell me Danny," he continued, "what good is being a hero when you can't even save the people closest to you?"

That's when Danny finally broke out of his shocked silence. He yanked at his ropes, desperate but failing to lunge forward at the monster. "I'll kill you!" he shrieked. "I'll kill you for this, Dan!"

Dan just grinned at him with mock sympathy, towering over Danny easily. "What can you do, Danny? You can't even transform right now."

Danny ground his teeth, hating the truth of those words. The jerk had used some weird tech on him to repress his ghost powers. It would wear off soon, but not soon enough to stop Dan from whatever he had planned next.

"This time around," Dan said with finality, "you _will_ become me!"

Taken completely off guard by those words and even more so when Dan turned intangible, Danny looked down at his torso in horror. A terrible, cold, tingling sensation was entering the pit of his stomach. In a whirlwind of icy energy, Dan completely disappeared inside of him, taking over his every limb.

Against his will, Danny felt his lips turn up into an evil grin as Dan used his body to tear through the ropes that bound them. Strangely, sweat dewed on his forehead with the effort. It was almost as if Dan was...sick.

Sensing Danny's realization, Dan gave a bitter, taunting explanation. "Being outside my own time weakened my existence. How ironic is it that merging with you is my best chance for survival, Danny?"

Desperation and horror swelled through Danny. This was worse than a possession. It couldn't happen! It wouldn't!

"NO!" Danny shrieked, finding the power to use his voice. "Get out of me now, before it's-!"

His words were cut off as Dan's presence grew within him. An intoxicating evil energy was mingling and merging with his own. A whisper of despair gripped him. "It's too late," he said, clutching his head. "I can feel it."

All sense of self was becoming confused, they were truly turning into one person. The part of him that was Dan rejoiced in this. His excitement was contagious, and their grimace became a wicked grin. "We're..." he breathed. " _I'm_ the new Danny Phantom!"

Getting to his feet slowly, he smirked at the newly found company. Walker and a couple of his goons stood by the now opened Ghost Zone portal, staring at him with wariness and even fear.

"I almost didn't notice you there, Walker. Let me guess," he continued mockingly. "You're here to arrest me?"

"Ghosts merging. That's against the rules." Walker said in his usual southern accent.

The words left Danny with a mixture of amusement and irritation. "Isn't everything in your book?"

He could feel power tingling at his fingertips. A small dark smile touched his lips. He was ready to transform again. This would be so much fun.

Two glowing rings ran across his body empowering him like he'd never felt. His old red and white tee-shirt with blue jeans vanished, revealing his new ghost form. A cross between Danny Phantom and Dan Phantom. It was Danny's same hair style but more wispy. A silver cape adorned his dark muscle toned suit. A look in a nearby reflective surface also showed him that his right eye was glowing green, but his left one was a matching red. The new him was all too fitting, and he liked what he saw.

Turning his attention back to Walker and his goons with a malevolent smile, Danny continued. "Now I'll kill you, just like killed my worthless parents and friends!"

Suddenly Danny froze at those words. Worthless? Kill? What was he doing?! It hit him like a tidal wave. A crushing horrible feeling washed over him like it hadn't in years, at least for the part of him that was Dan. Remorse. Horrible guilt overtook him, eating at his chest. Visions of all the death, carnage and destruction he'd wrought as Dan brought him to his knees. He looked at the bodies in the room, and pure devastation sent tears down his cheeks once more.

How could this have happened? How could he have become the very thing that killed them? As Dan he hadn't been able to anticipate how the return of Danny's human emotions would affect him. Dan and Danny. He was neither of those now, yet both at the same time. Even so, the experiences of two lives now made him who he was, and in that moment he couldn't stand it. All the evil things he'd done, and the wonderful things he could never do thanks to killing the only people he had left crushed him.

Danny lowered his head in despair. "Maybe after everything I've done, I deserve punishment," he whispered. "Maybe-"

His next words were cut off as a bulldozer crashed through the walls and into the lab followed by a swarm of some of Danny's least favorite people. The Guys In White. "Danny Phantom! In the name of the United States government, you are under arrest for the murder of Jack Fenton, Maddie Fenton, Sam Manson, and Tucker Foley!" hollered Agent C. "Prepare to be subjected to experiments. Very painful experiments!"

A nagging irritation and all too familiar revulsion at the thought filled Danny. What was he doing just sitting there to be taken off by either Walker or the Guys In White? He refused to spend any more time in a cage! That thermos in Clockwork's abode had been enough to last a lifetime.

He should just end them all here and there. For a moment, he began drawing on his green ghost energy, then he stopped. No. Just because they were after him didn't mean he had to kill them. It was tempting, sure, but he was Danny too and not just Dan. That part of him wasn't a killer or a villain at all. At least, not yet. Only time would tell, and with the way things were going today who knew what would happen.

Having made these decisions quickly and without moving an inch, Danny had the element of surprise. He turned intangible and flew right out of the house. Walker and the Guys In White weren't far behind. Gritting his teeth, Danny flew down the streets as fast as he could, which he had to admit, was much faster than he'd ever flown before. That combined energy was really paying off.

As the sound of the government weapons fighting Walker instead of him faded into the distance, Danny relaxed a bit. He shifted back into his human form and walked down the sidewalk, avoiding any onlookers. He'd relaxed too soon. Two guns, held by the white suited agents, pointed at him. They were getting very close too. Danny was cornered and helplessly human. He clenched his fists, eyes darting around for a way out. Seeing none, he gritted his teeth in frustration. That's when the strangest, most unexpected thing happened.

A limousine pulled up right in front of them on the street. A back window rolled down to reveal a face Danny hadn't thought he'd ever see again. Not since the disasteroid incident had left him stranded in space. Too shocked to move, Danny just stared at his arch enemy. What in hell was Vlad doing here now? What was he up to?

"Do you want to get out of here or not?" He asked wryly, raising a daring eyebrow.

If he'd been one hundred percent Danny he wouldn't have considered it for a second, but part of him was remembering the many months he'd spent in Vlad's care. In that alternate timeline after he'd lost his family and friends, Danny had gotten close to him. Vlad had become almost a father figure. This Vlad was not from that parallel universe. He wasn't the same Vlad Dan had known, but even so, Danny found himself moving forward and towards the limo. Given the alternative of being shot and experimented on by the Guys In White, his arch enemy didn't sound so bad for once. The car door opened, and Danny slipped in. Then, faster than the agents could keep up, they were driving away, impervious to their bullets thanks to the car's tough armor.

Once Danny could breath he looked up at Vlad a little warily, but mostly quizzically. "How did you find out? How did you even make it back from space?"

The older half ghost eyed Danny for a moment with an unreadable expression then he spoke. "Starting with with your second question. A split second before the disasteroid collided with me, I suddenly found myself in a place outside of time. You may know of a certain ghost named Clockwork?"

It was a rhetorical question, but at the very mention of Clockwork, Danny gritted his teeth with distaste and anger. He'd been locked up in that place for too long, or at least Dan had.

Ignoring Danny's reaction, Vlad went on. "Anyway, Clockwork kept me locked up there until just a few days ago, never even telling me why the entire time. Then the oddest thing happened. I heard that someone named Dan Phantom had escaped and was on the ghost zone's most wanted list. Never having heard of him, I was curious. So assuming he had something to do with Danny Phantom, I decided to risk coming out of the ghost zone to see for myself."

Danny wasn't sure whether to be angry or roll his eyes. If he'd gotten there sooner, Vlad might have been able stop him from at least killing his mom before it was too late. His only relief was that his sister Jazz was off in college or she'd have been dead too. That thought took some weight off his chest, and Danny allowed a grimace of a smile.

"Leave it to you to do this for curiosity," he said to Vlad. "Still," said Danny raising an eyebrow, "That doesn't explain why you rescued me."

Something about his cocky demeanor must have seemed off to Vlad because he suddenly looked a little wary. Was Vlad starting to catch on that Danny wasn't one hundred percent the boy he'd seen last?

Vlad cleared his face up after a moment. "I rescued you because you're my only lead. So, can you tell me? Who is this Dan Phantom?"

Danny sighed irritably. The fruit loop was twisted as always. "Do you really want to know?" he asked.

Now Vlad was getting irritated. "Yes! Now stop making me impatient."

"Positive?" Danny pressed, with a mixture of dread and sudden reluctance. He hadn't admitted this outloud yet.

Vlad was turning red, making his silver hair look even paler for once. "I'm. Positive. Daniel," he spat out, one word at a time.

Danny closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then he managed to get out his next words. "I'm not just Danny Phantom anymore, Vlad. I'm Dan Phantom, too. You see, they merged, and I'm the result."

Vlad stared at Danny in dumbstruck shock. Danny shrugged helplessly, and just continued. "Dan Phantom was a future, alternate universe version of Danny Phantom who turned evil. Clockwork locked him up after changing the timeline to the way things are now. He stopped Dan from trying to keep his future intact. From making sure Danny lost everyone he cared about. From killing them."

Danny clenched his fists as he finally admitted it all. Tears of grief and anger spilled again. "Damn it, Clockwork! Why didn't you stop it this time too?! Damn it!"

"Daniel," Vlad asked very warily, "What happened today? Is it why you're being hunted by the Guys In White?"

"Dan did it right in front of Danny, before they became me..." Danny trailed off and clenched his eyes shut in pain, hating this, but he kept going on. "They're all dead. Everyone except Jazz."

Danny broke then, and he stared at Vlad with a hint of madness in his eyes. "I killed them, Vlad! I killed them all!" Danny clutched at Vlad's coat collar desperately, but for what reason he didn't know. "I remember enjoying it, Vlad. Like all the other people I killed as Dan. All those people! They died because of me! The world almost ended because of me!"

Vlad had to shove Danny off of him with all his might just to get him to budge. The gesture snapped Danny to his senses. "I...I'm sorry. I shouldn't have grabbed you like that or lost it like that, I-"

"Daniel," Vlad interrupted sharply. "Are you saying Maddie is...dead?"

"Yes," he said quietly. "Everyone but Jazz is. She was at her college when Dan showed up."

"So I'm looking the killer of the love of my life?"

"Yeah. I guess you are." Danny said emptily. "Half of him anyway, does this mean I get to die now?"

Danny felt surprised at his own words the moment he said them. It was true though. He really felt miserable enough to be suicidal. He would deserve death at this point.

"I'm not going to kill you, Daniel." Vlad said with a sigh. "I have enough sense to know I lost Maddie a long time ago anyway. The question is, do you really want to die that much?"

Danny looked at Vlad in surprise and saw that the man even seemed a little concerned. Since when did Vlad Plasmius even care whether Danny Phantom survived? _Since he took me in when I needed a dad most._

The voice came from the part of him that was Dan, and another source of guilt was added onto the already massive pile of it. Danny wasn't the only ghost Dan had merged with. What ultimately had made Dan Phantom who he was, was that he had merged with Vlad's evil ghost half as well, leaving their empty human shells to die and suffer. Vlad had been alone for ten years, human and weak while Dan conquered the world.

"Dan didn't have human emotions. I do. So yes. After all the messed up stuff he did going through my head, death sounds pretty nice."

"You said the world almost ended because of you, that people died, in what universe could Danny Phantom ever do that?"

Vlad had a point. "When I lost everyone in that alternate timeline, you took me in. Then I begged you to take away my negative emotions, so I wouldn't feel pain anymore. The ghost half was separated from the human half of me, and..." Danny hesitated. Why was he even telling Vlad this? He didn't owe him an explanation.

 _No. I owe him everything._ Danny shook his head, as if to rid himself of the thought, but he couldn't.

"And?" Vlad pressed.

The simply curious questioning tone, free of the earlier malice brought back memories of numerous other conversations. Conversations from another life, but all the same, it put Danny a little more at ease.

"My ghost half got mad at you while you were doing the operation, then he tore out your ghost half. The two merged into a very evil, very powerful ghost named Dan Phantom."

There. He'd said it. Maybe Vlad would actually be scared of him now. Who knew? That admission wasn't meant to be a threat, but it had implications. Those implications seemed to be turning the wheels in Vlad's mind. At least, Danny thought that's what Vlad was thinking about.

Instead he said, "That means you are three quarters Danny Phantom and one quarter...me?"

Danny raised an eyebrow. "Yeah...I never thought of that way, but I guess."

Worry spread over his face as he thought of something else. It had taken him a surprisingly long time to think of it, what with his own feelings and misery being at the forefront of his mind.

"I have to tell Jazz. I have to tell her not to come near me ever again." He said with finality, catching Vlad very off guard. "Do you have a phone I could borrow?"

After an awkward moment, Vlad reluctantly handed him his own phone. Danny raised an eyebrow. "What will the caller ID say?"

"I think you know."

Danny sighed. He was just going to have to hope Jazz answered someone calling as Vlad Masters. He dialed her number and took a deep breath. She answered surprisingly quickly. "I swear, Vlad Plasmius, if you had anything to do with this I'm going to kill you! It's all over the news. My parents dead, everyone hunting my brother. This is a whole new level of messed up even for you!"

Danny clenched his teeth and held the yelling phone away from his ear. Vlad was obviously trying not to laugh. Danny glared at him. "Jazz. It's me. Um...Sort of."

"Danny?" she asked with surprise. "Oh, Danny! Thank goodness! I've been so worried. Are you okay, and why are you using Vlad's phone?"

Danny squeezed his eyes shut in dread with what he was about to do, but he continued. "Jazz, you have to stay away from me now. I'm dangerous. If they're saying on the news that I killed mom and dad, it's because I did."

There was a silence, then Jazz said, "Danny, you can't be serious."

"It's because I'm not just Danny anymore, Jasmine." He let her full name come out in an all too horrifyingly familiar way. It was the way Dan had last spoken to her when he'd traveled through time.

A horrified gasp came out of her, then angry desperate yelling, "Get out of my brother now, Dan! I'm warning you! Get out of Danny this instant!"

Danny sighed. "It's too late for that. It's not a possession. Your brother and Dan Phantom merged. That's who I am now. Good bye forever, Jazz. Don't come looking for me," and with those words, he hung up.

"I must say, Daniel, that was particularly harsh." Vlad commented.

Danny shrugged. "The farther she is from me the safer she is. No one else I care about dies that way. So it's for the best." He tried to say it strongly, but it still hurt. He meant every word, though. He didn't know what he'd do if he saw Jazz. Would he kill her like he'd killed everyone else? He wasn't about to let himself find out.

"So, where do we split up? You have all your questions answered, so..."

Vlad looked thoughtful. "You've left quite an impression on me today, Daniel. We're both fugitives in the Ghost Zone and human world. Would you say two is better than one?"

Danny was surprised. "You want us to team up and go on the run together? Seriously?"

Vlad answered with a raised eyebrow and cocky smile. Danny debated for a few seconds. The odds weren't good against him, and as crazy as it sounded, Vlad might be his best chance for survival. Besides, part of him couldn't help but feel this could actually be really fun.

"Deal," he said with a grin. "So, where to next?"

Vlad had to struggle to hide his smugness. This new Danny Phantom might just become his perfect son yet.


End file.
